Yolŋu Longgrassers on Larrakia Land

Gifted and Talented Children

Eight Yolŋu consultants came to Darwin
from Arnhemland for a research workshop looking at ‘Gifted and
Talented children’. The plain language statement prepared for the
CDU ethics committee said:

Yolŋu elders can often identify very
special young people who will grow up to be leaders in ceremony,
in clan groups, in the community or in politics. But the school
system does not understand Yolŋu points of view on what it means
for a young person to be seen as ‘gifted’ or ‘talented’.

This project
will brought together Yolŋu elders and educators to work as a ‘focus
group’ to talk about:

How can we tell which Yolŋu children are
the leaders of the future?

What Yolŋu words are used to describe
these people and what do they mean?

What do these children need
to learn to be a leader?

What role will the fill as leaders?

Who,
how and where does the family and community work to grow them
up?

What should school teachers and Education Departments know
about these young people?

What should school teachers and Education Departments
do to help these young people?

The project was funded by The National Centre of Science,
Information and Communication Technology, and Mathematics Education
for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) see http://simerrnt.cdu.edu.au/home.htm

In our previous SiMERR workshop we were funded to look at mathematics
in a Yolŋu community and in a Yolŋu classroom (see www.cdu.edu.au/macp).
For this project we were funded to look at Yolŋu perceptions of
Gifted and Talented Children. This is what Michael, John and Helen
put as the ‘rationale’ into the funding application:

Future Aboriginal leaders are often identified by their elders
when they are still young. In each new generation of children
in Arnhemland – and throughout remote Australia, particular
children are identified as gifted and talented, and strategies
are put in place to help them grow towards leadership. These
significant practices are, with very few exceptions, entirely
unrecognised by the processes of formal education. Furthermore,
Indigenous perspectives on ‘giftedness’, the means
of identifying ‘talent’ and the practices for supporting
the development of leaders can sometimes be seen as quite contrary
to the sorts of behaviours and practices fostered in the formal
classroom. This project aims to document senior Aboriginal people’s
perspectives on the characteristics of such children, the ways
they are identified, and the ways in which they are encouraged
and supported as they grow to maturity. It will also examine
the elders’ experience of formal schooling, and reflections
on the role of schools in supporting gifted and talented young
Aboriginal people. This is a significant project because it approaches
for the first time issues surrounding the education of gifted
and talented Aboriginal children from an Aboriginal perspective.
Its aim is to work towards ways in which those young people who
are identified in their communities as having considerable political,
religious, and economic potential for their clan groups, can
be best supported in formal schooling. When community elders
are invited to address this question carefully and collaboratively
in terms of current formal education provisions in rural and
remote communities, they will come up with surprising and significant
recommendations.

SiMERR agreed to fund the project, and offered more money if we
wanted to conduct a workshop with NTDEET staff to inform them of
the outcomes. We applied to the CDU Human Research Ethics Committee,
who asked for evidence that the proposal had been reviewed by academic
peers, and by an Indigenous researcher, confirmation that the results
will be provided in hardcopy form to participants, by an Indigenous
researcher, that we confirm that the Yolŋu lands being a small
area, that our findings could not be generalised across the NT.
We were asked to provide details of the consent process, and details
of how will participants be reminded that they can withdraw at
any stage. We satisfied these requirements and were given the go-ahead.

We worked out who would be available and made bookings for consultants
to come to Darwin. We included the two consultants from Ngukurr
because they were already in Darwin to work on the evaluation of
the TCU financial literacy project. While they were in Darwin,
the consultants also gave a public seminar on Indigenous community
Engagement for another CDU research project.

We met in the SAIKS seminar room at Charles Darwin University
on the 21st and 22nd February, 2008. We made audio recordings of
all that happened, and at the end, the Yolŋu consultants also gave
their overall impressions and summing up on video. John made notes
on the audio tapes of the workshop. (see What happened) Michael
transcribed and translated the video tapes, and was later able
to talk to Yiŋiya and Lawurrpa to confirm his translation. (see
Key texts) Michael made a summary of the main ideas from the key
texts (see Key findings) Michael and John made a list of key
concepts (see resources tab) to an understanding of Yolŋu perspectives
on gifted and talented children. Other people contributed other
material

Below are transcriptions from recorded interview/statements made
during the workshop

14 Let’s put in a different nhawi, why we… how we can tell Yolŋu
kids become leaders in our way, in Yolŋu rom, culture. In the old
days just before when many boys go through initiation ceremony,
the boys get painted on their chest. 100 The painting that they
put on the boys are their own traditional paintings, the land where
they belong to, or what creatures their totem is. That is painted
on the chest of every boy. 123 After it has been painted the boys
stand up to get it dried out, and they stood in a line, and the
elders used to observe them then. If a painting peeled off the
boy’s body, that boy was never chosen to be a leader, because the
painting really told the elders how the boy was going to grow up
and do other things rather than being a leader. And to the boy
whose body painting wasn’t peeled, that was the leader for the
future. 230 And during the time they used to know who those leaders
were going to be. Nowadays, that isn’t being looked into properly
like there’s many other nhawi distractions that come up, 303 other
things that come and take their mind off from the things that they’re
supposed to learn.

Children need to learn to become leaders when
they have a role model. 348 They can watch that person carefully,
some do it when they play around they have, they go through, like
imitate which person they are. 404 But nowadays there is a problem
with the language: 422 kids are now talking in language that is
different from what the adults speak, and the language they have
created themselves this time the adults doesn’t know or understand
what they are talking about. 449 To be able to really sit down
and communicate with the children you have to come to their level
of language. And with the difference in that language nowadays,
that’s the problem where we can’t even get to them, because they
wouldn’t understand what we’re talking about. 527 And I have found
that myself. Djamarrkuli’, kids should be encouraged by their families
but there is another problem out there as well. Family members,
they have their own things they are busy with, doing other things,
instead of encouraging those children.

There are a lot of community
problems in the community, 536 and kids really learn by watching,
and whatever they see, some even do what their family members do
when they are doing things that are not good for their learning.
702 Like in school, teachers should be aware of their attitude
and their behaviour in the classroom, whether a child who can become
a future leader, the behaviour and the attitudes that is shown
in the classroom by that child towards others. 748 Showing a bit
of leadership in the classroom, and helping others understanding
what the teacher has given the kids to do, showing responsibility
820 of helping others who are slow. That’s the kind of leader that
will be in the future for the Yolŋu.

835 Ga, another thing is that
Yolŋu kids in the classroom are not competitive. When they have
got a Yolŋu does make a mistake, the other child helps, and sort
of talk to him 908 that it’s wrong and they come to the conclusion
where the person who knows what he’s doing helps the one who doesn’t
know, so they encourage each other and that’s why teachers should
be more careful ga make sure the person there …(no cut that off
yalala.) 952 … a child who is gadaman’ (smart, clever) I should
say gadaman’ should help those who are behind and that’s how Yolŋu
is in the classroom, they help each other, even though the teacher
doesn’t know, and that’s for children who are talented and gifted,
because Yolŋu kids grow up learning everything, the knowledge that
is passed through them, they know how to relate to everybody when
they are about three or four years old, three. A children that
age already knows how he is related to the families that he grew
up in, 1107 knows what do they … how he’s related to everybody,
through the gurrutu system. He knows who his märi (mother’s mother’s
people) is, who his grandfather is, which are his sisters and brothers.
That doesn’t mean his biological mother’s children, but her sisters’
children as well, it goes further. Because he already knows how
he’s related to all his cousins, you would call, so his mind is
always open 1210 for any new things that he can learn, or take
in, a Yolŋu grows up, what we call in Yolŋu the ‘ŋayaŋu’, ‘ŋayaŋu’
how to stay and be real close to his family, and his dislikes and
likes and what he would like to do. That is already within him,
1302 but growing up with other families around, there are problems
as well in there, where kids go off track. But that’s normal in
everyday life, but it’s up to the child, that he knows how to make
decisions himself, and most of that is not being practised nowadays,
I believe, 1357because of all the things that is in the world today.
1419 And those are the barriers that can cause problems for people
of today, especially young people. 1440 END

Okay, how can we talk about a
child who is gifted okay that child has a gift in her hands,
so they live by means of their ŋayaŋu (spirit), as they learn,
looking at the elders, and how he will work, and how he will
sit, and what he can get there, what gifts, how young children
see and learn, he lives by those things. Lawurrpa’s Comment
if you are adopted into a fimily or someone who is your own
family, grew up within that family you know how you can feel
the sense of way we do think act treat you get that feeling
from the family that’s the deepest meaning. You can
get that learning part living from the family.

If he is working very hard (murruymurruyyun) and
he continues to do so, then they will choose him as a leader. That’s
the first question on the blackboard. So (the second question)
how would be describe that (gifted) person as different?

Because we may think that he
doesn’t understand (the balanda way). But he does really
understand, but he is already knowledgeable on our Yolŋu
side, and on the Balanda side, he was very keen to learn. And
if he’s a gadaman’ (sharp) kid on the balanda side of things,
he thinks, he’s djambatj (smart), and he’s the person the
Balanda choose, looking from their Balanda side.

But we on the Yolŋu side, we
always get them, like we were talking about yesterday. Okay,
so how can we see how balanda can bring a policy (rom gäma)
with our children, in the same way the Yolŋu work with our
own children?

I want, my ŋayaŋu (inner feeling),
is that we will help our children on the path, we Yolŋu.
Bring him strongly to that gakal (role) and help him, and
that goes for the teachers too. Because this is what I want:
We will all come together balanda and Yolŋu for the Yolŋu
children, at school

So that’s it from me, it will
raise up the children, and take those who are and take the
place of the people their elders who die, so he will grow
and learn and stand with good foundations, what our children’s
future will be like, you see, for our Yolŋu children, and
that’s it from me.

So how are we going to lead this,
the path upon which to grow them, because there’s many different
ways for them to learn, they invest in their totems and speak
of themselves from what? Like a sacred rock, maybe
some shellfish, water, octopus, they will take on those sorts
of gakal (identities), from there.

So those gakal (ancestral identities)
will carry them, they will grow, so that they will go into
the Balanda culture, growing without fear, courageously,
because they have already learnt from this side.

So you in the department see
liya-djambatj (clever) kids in maths, and writing, good speakers
of English, but we see children’s ŋayaŋu (personality), quiet
ŋayaŋu, gently spoken, who know their kinfolk, patient ŋayaŋu,
good listener, they are the leaders in our way of thinking,
leaders whom we choose, or born leaders.

So that’s what I want, we will
join up witht eh school education people, and help to raise
those children up, so he will later lead his own people,
later, when we how are here all pass away. That’s it.

But that child has gämurru (significance),
from his land and community, we see that child, with his
kin connections, and how through them that child reveals
his own gakal (identity), how he balyunmirr (invest in his
ancestry), who he is, where he comes from, and how he connects
to all the different clan groups.

So we want for those children
that they will look out, see the path, where they are going,
and what foreign ways are creeping in, he will see, see the
rom (law), see the dhuwurr (implications), that child.

So there, looking at the rom
(law), the dhuwurr (culture), he will rise up in front, listening
to the old people, sitting with the old people, with his
Yolŋu elders, and through that, take part as his own future,
his future of leadership for that child.

Because most of all Yolŋu children
learn from what the landforms hold, from hunting, turtle,
whatever they go for, shellfish. That’s what they do their
first learning, the children, it’s like that. So it’s there
that we adults need to help, that child, those children,
who already have that gift and gakal (identity).

We Yolŋu should help them, we
adults, and how we need to help them over there where they
work with books, for teaching the children in school. That’s
where we will come together and help each other and carry
it out, all of us, and recognise those children we see as
having gifts and gakal (ancestral identities).

Yes, children, a child, those
children already have knowledge, and as they grow up and
(as I said earlier in the discussion), the learning stream
is flowing, always open to receive the new, the Yolŋu will
take on the new, (what my momalkur said earlier in the discussion)
the mulkurr (head) and the ŋayaŋu (spirit) need to come together
as one.

4404 They come to a certain
age, yumurrku where they make their decisions, wanhalaya
dhanal ŋarru nhänharami who they are, where they stand. That’s
when they decide what to do.

They come to a certain age those
young people, where they start to make decisions, where they
look at themselves, who they are, where they stand. That’s
when they decide what to do.

We receive them, and when they
come over from the mainstream, and their foundations stand
strong in who they are, already, gaining knowledge from over
there, still learning both sides, balancing them, finding
a path, like choosing, that’s how a true Yolŋu leader will
emerge, from a child.

So that’s how we have to balyunmi
(invest ourselves in our ancestral identities), because our
ŋayaŋu (spirits) are strong, all those things which lies
there in our lives. In that area, that’s where we should
be empowering ourselves in our balyunmi (ancestral investments),
if we remain däl (strong, hard) on this side, there will
be no problems on that side.

But at the moment the education
department is pretty confused in the Balanda rom (way of
doing things). Yolŋu children who are sitting these
days for two laws, one through the yolŋu side through yolŋu
rom (law), getting raypirri’ (discipline), learning about
gakal (identity), learning to be djambatj (good hunters),
fetching food, getting meat, working out a djulam’ (strategy)
and find those things which are hiding, creep up to get them,
through gakal (becoming like totems).

And if a Yolŋu has been learning
through the Balanda side, how will he learn the Balanda rom
(world). He will learn from his own rom (way), and
what the Balanda government gives, that yolŋu will have to
survive in the Balanda world, or ‘front’.

So he gets stuck, confused, doesn’t
know what to do, the yolŋu is stuck as if he is stupid, maybe
he is confused and finds the school business hard, the balanda
area, maybe that kid is confused, but maybe he quite a clever
kid, but the teachingpuy (pedagogy) through the balanda rom
(practices), the two miss each other, the Yolŋu and the balanda
rom (ways of teaching).

I was just thinking, maybe those
two can learn of each other, back and forwards, they will,
for a long time we yolŋu have been searching for your Balanda
law for a long time, you taught us, and made us like babies,
and we learnt from you your balanda rom (way), through the
school side, how we must bend to you, and supposedly understand
your rom (ways), and only you rom (culture) will get bigger,
through work and jobs, how about you learn something about
our rom (law)?

So here there are, kids growing
up, getting bigger, talented in the balanda rom (way), he
will go to school, grow through balanda education, right
up until he will become a doctor, a scientist, a lawyer,
whatever he becomes. It’s the same on the side of Yolŋu rom
(culture), we have our own teachers, and doctors, liya-gadaman’mirr
mala (clever people), who have been teaching us our own rom
(law).

So yolŋu sit with two educations,
we have one on the yolŋu side, and there’s one on the balanda
side.
Yet if he moves to the balanda side, we get caught finding
it hard, and unable to progress, they are failing at many things,
our children in school. He the balanda gets it, (and progresses)

Maybe the balanda and the
Yolŋu ways can recognise each other. You balanda should come
over on to our side and learn about our rom (ways). Our
rom (way) is a respectful (rum’rummirr) way, and as for questions,
we won’t ask a question in the middle (depth, inside) of
garma (the open areas, where there is gakal rom (ancestral
identities are being performed).

We just learn, we just learn
as we go, it just appears to us, not going questioning the
old people. They will teach us. But now in balanda rom (way)
it says: Ask many questions, and ask in order to learn, children
should ask old people.” But if they were doing it the
Yolŋu rom (way), it’s not good for him to ask.

So maybe your balanda ways should
learn from ours. I’ll say one thing: “Are you shortchanging
us? Are you cheating us with the children’s education? Hiding
something belonging to only you balanda? So that our children
won’t become a Prime Minister?

So we will, our kids will never
turn out to be anything like lawyers, or are you hiding something
from us? If not, then what’s this you call ‘equality in education’
in all communities, whether it be in the Yolŋu communities,
Yolŋu community centre schools, or balanda school, we want
a service, an education, equally, they should be the same,
our kids won’t grow properly in schools, sitting way over
there.

These days there are many different
technologies, like internet, broadband, all the services,
if those things are available for balanda in schools, for
balanda children, what is so hard? Why can’t it be
at Yolŋu communities and homeland schools or in Yolŋu schools,
in Aboriginal education centres?

If services are easy to give
to balanda kids, like the internet system, then what is lacking
in the Yolŋu communities? That’s my question. My point is
that I need equality for all children in education whether
they be Yolŋu or balanda. Thankyou 5440.

What I’m going to talk about
is children, when they hold gakal (ancestral identity),
and rom (culture, law), when they get them from their kinfolk,
and carry it, where they go, through ceremonies, singing,
they reveal their thinking, they think, and look and internalise
it.

But by agreement, these rom
(ways) are through agreement, agreement for ceremonial
dance and song, for funerals, for funerals, a person dies,
when they will paint themselves with red ochre, those are
the rom (practices) he learns.

To become what he is to be,
what he will do for that gakal (ancestral identity), he
puts that law into his body. And kids also follow and see
what things? Like in hunting, at hunting, all the
different things, like associated technology for turtle,
fish, stingray and then they learn about the waters, the
land, how it stands, revealed by the old people.

And other stories, like the
father’s father story for his gäthu, and the mother’s father
story for his waku, so there’s two sides, and he’s balancing
them for himself, so he be enriched by both his mother’s
and his father’s law, and also his mother’s mother’s rom
(law), those which are holding him strong. Okay. That’s
where I’ll…
Now Gwen can share her ideas and understanding.

510 In the Yolŋu culture, within each clan group, each tribe,
we know that when a child is brought into this world, it’s already
got its role, that child already has a role to play on his what
ever. He gets to the stage where he grows up and the roles that
what Ian said it is sort of a hand-over from their grandfathers,
they had it over to the new generation it’s their ?list, it’s how
it’s handed by the family and 613 by watching a child. But I see
that and to know that a child will be a leader or can be
a leader I can see it how he, he follows the footstep of his father
or his grandfather and the way he um does things same as what his
grandfather or his father does, or copies you know, copies
what things he does, and later in the age when he’s about probably
13 or 14, he knows he’s got the role, if he knows his father has
the role that he’s also included in there as a leader in that clan
or tribe and people are watching him, people are watching the boy
who’s growing up to be a man, and to me, I’m in the school you
know, what should the schools and the education department do? I
think they should be encouraged by the community, the community
links should have a strong community member to encourage the school,
encourage the kids to go to school, but not only encouraging them,
find ways that they can meet the two way systems. It’s now I think
it’s still there’s a problem with the way the two systems are working.
But they know a child has the only system he knows very well his
own culture background, but while he’s struggling, he’ll struggle
with the white system, white man’s system, he’ll have to struggle
because he hasn’t got enough knowledge to sort of move on, so there
should be strong community people should be talking about this
and if it want how the student to get the level 906 same level
as those European children, those have the level, there should
be a push in the community, and I think you know, so for so many
years education has tried. I saw that work, during those years
where education was still sort of trying to find ways how to help
Yolŋu children to get to the level of the other mainstream children
in Australia, but as I said as a Yolŋu child he is born into a
world with there’s things for him there to work with. He’s
not an ordinary child, he has got his roles and responsibilities
already 1015. Hand over to Ian.

Okay, I just have a few points,
a few words, what needs to happen to a child so that the
will later work properly, in their own community or if
later the work in a different community, and how would
we see them and choose them?

There are many paths, to sort
out if a child is good for work or maybe not good for this,
so who is going to determine what is good for the community,
or not good for the community, and how will he go over
there, find a bäla (style, path, manner, role), like his
‘part’, that’s that word ‘bäla’, it’s like footsteps, or
a foot in place, that bäla.

Some, because he is a descent
line through his father’s father’s father. Others
may see it themselves, and choose it, and the gadaman (learned)
ways enter into him. And he will become djambatj
(clever).

And so then he maybe also working
is his mother’s brother, or he is (his father’s)
son, so I develop my own undersanding though my own law,
how I should go about dong this, by referring back to what
my father did, or grandfather did, and their leadership
in their time.

1314 I had to take it into
my nhawi, my understanding, and accept it nhakun
ŋarra dhu, ga deliver ŋunhiyi ŋarraku leadership, that’s
where ŋayi wiripulili gäma other people in the community
??walal ga nhäma, ŋunha ŋayi ga something coming manymak,
nhakun beŋur, nhanukal nhawiŋur, leadershipŋur.

I had to it (their leadership)
into my understanding, and I must accept it, and deliver
my own leadership. So it is taken to other places,
and the other people in the community they look, and see
something emerging which is good, from him, from there,
from his leadership.

1344 (talking about the points
on the whiteboard) That’s where, nhawiŋur nhakun ŋuruŋur
nhawi, question nhakun, ga second one nhakun ŋayi dhu manymak,
now the third one-nha ŋunha covering liŋgu, ga dhuwal gam’
ŋarra dhu appoint role nhakun, where they will, nhawi what
role that yothu nhawi have to be ..

Okay so we’ve had a go at the
first question, and then the second question, that’s okay,
now the third one. We’ve covered that. Now the point
about the role, where they will.. what role that child
will have to..

So first, he that boy will
know his standing in the community, what is his position
that boy. I would try to learn that, and I will get more
useful rom (understanding), and only later will I put it
into practice.
And the same process happens for girls (who will be leaders).

But if I were to say, “I am
ok, I am such and such a clan, and I’m going to work, I
will follow this way of behaving, and will I try to give
to the community”, maybe the community will not accept
it. They might accept it in the rom (ceremonial context),
but maybe not at the community (council) level, outside
the rom (ceremony).

So that’s what I think about
that. So we come to the next question, “Who will
help him, to grow him up?” They’re there, his close
kin on his father’s side and his mother’s side, anyone
will help him. His märi will lead him, reach out her hand,
“Is it okay if I take my grandchild and teach her?” they’ll
ask the father, let him know, let the mother know, grandfather
– all kinfolk,

So he’ll truly learn the rom
(way), and take it, and become strong there, the
rom (law) will lie there, so he will truly reveal what
– he believes. Yes, that’s it.

Three main points ran through the entire discussion.

First: Giftedness and talentedness in the Yolŋu
world are associated with leadership. People do not have gifts by
themselves or for themselves.

Second: Young people are born with their gifts
and talents, derived from their embodiment of ancestral connections.
The Yolŋu word for this embodiment is gakal.

Third: Giftedness is neither a head thing (mulkurr)
or a guts thing (ŋayaŋu) but an effect of the two coming together.

What follows is an elaboration of those points, followed by a summary
of discussion of the key signs of Yolŋu giftedness, of what the Yolŋu
family does about it, and what that all means for schooling.

Gakal and Leadership

Gotha, the most senior of all the participants, began the discussion
with the point that all children have gakal, or a potential to embody
gakal, but not all children are going to be leaders. Some children
are born leaders, usually as the firstborn to a particular mother
and father which means they are very likely to be required to take
on leadership – both ceremonial and economic. Others who are not
born in that position may be in a position to achieve leadership
– they work for it and earn it. And then some are chosen by elders
to be leaders – because of the way they behave, and because of the
needs of the group (3756). The leader is expected to find a path,
not only for himself, but for his family and for the wider community
(4528).

Lawurrpa used the word munhdhurr (‘gift’) when talking about giftedness;
the notion of inheritance is fundamental to the understanding of
gakal. Giftedness is gakal (3450) The Yolŋu child is ‘not an ordinary
child, he has got his roles and responsibilities already. He is born
into a world where there’s things there to help him work with’ (-906).
He is born with a role (308, 1636, -510,-906, -1344), what he learns
is his own truth (4100), and this goes for girls as well as for boys
(-1414).

So the gifted children receive the gift of gakal from their ancestors
and ‘carry it through dancing and singing’ (-15). A future leader
is given a good example by his family, and learns ‘who he is, where
he comes from, how he connects’ (3919). Not only his father’s line,
but all the others as well, especially his mother’s – all in balance
(-403, -1546). By age 3 or 4 he knows where he fits in (957) getting
guidance from everyone (1240).

Land and family both make their contributions (3919), while the
young person is learning ways of getting a living off the land (4122),
‘learning law, being disciplined, learning gakal, hunting, providing
meat, strategising, finding hidden things, creeping and stalking,
through his gakal’ (4751).

Gakal finds an important place in ceremonials, the funerals, body
paintings (-208), the foundations of Yolŋu life (2102). He ‘puts
that gakal into his body not only through ceremony and ancestral
song, but hunting, and using technology shown to him by elders’ (-235).
We see how he invests his identity (balyunmirr) in various rocks,
shellfish, waters, even octopus (3620). His leadership emerges from
that (4122).

Ŋayaŋu and mulkurr

The notion of ŋayaŋu kept coming up in discussions of the embodiment
of gakal. In Yolŋu dictionaries ŋayaŋu is translated as ‘the seat
of the emotions’. English speakers talk about bringing the head and
the heart together, Yolŋu speak of being head and ŋayaŋu together
(3606). “A Yolŋu grows up, what we call in Yolŋu a ŋayaŋu how to
stay and be real close to his family, and his dislikes and likes
and what he would like to do. That is already within him’ (1210).
‘Children already have knowledge, and as they grow up the learning
stream is flowing, always open to receive the new, the mulkurr (head)
and the ŋayaŋu (spirit) need to come together as one (4300, 3552),
as one body (4554).

This is something which gifted children actively take upon themsleves,
‘the knowledge they receive, they put that it into their body’ (-340),
‘he will become strong in the law, and take it, and it will lie in
him’ (-1633).

Problems were identified with the contemporary development of Yolŋu
giftedness: Living in large communities there are many other children
and adults all around the growing child. This is confusing. Learning
gakal properly requires being around the immediate family and extended
kin (1302). The second problem is to do with language. Your language
tells you who you are, and if a child grows up not speaking his ancestral
language properly, they can’t grow properly into gakal. Children
on large communities are starting to speak a common language, they
are not learning their own (422).

How do Yolŋu recognise gifted and talented children?

When asked about how elders identify gifted and talented children,
Dhäŋgal told a story: In the old days when boys were to go through
their initiation ceremony, they were painted with ancestral designs
on their chest: ‘their own traditional paintings, the land where
they belong to, or what creatures their totem is. If a painting peeled
off the boy’s body, that boy was never chosen to be a leader, because
the painting really told the elders how the boy was going to grow
up and do other things. And to the boy whose body painting wasn’t
peeled, that was the leader for the future’ (100). This story requires
some explanation. After being painted, the boys would have to wait
several days before their ceremony. They would be required to sit
quietly and solemnly, listening to the ancestral singing, and watching
the preparations. Some boys may be prone to wriggling and playing
around a bit, and their paint work inevitably gets messed up a bit.
It is not difficult to tell after a few days, which boys are able
to sit quietly and respectfully, simply by inspecting the condition
of the carefully painted sacred images on their chests.

This story points to quite a different set of signs of giftedness
in Yolŋu children. They must be retiring and given to quiet respectfulness
(rum’rummirr 5127), sit quietly with their role models (14), listening
to the old people (4028), listening with a peaceful spirit (3529),
be quietly spoken (3576) ‘taking part in his own future’ (4028).
It’s not only what he does, but ‘how he sits’ (1441). They are helpful
(räl-wandirri 3529), and work hard (murruy’murruyyun 1558), learning
as they go without questioning the old people (5156), for fear of
interrupting the attainment of gakal (5127).

They feed their own spirits (birrimbirr) so that their head and
their ŋayaŋu sit well together (3552). They start to reveal their
gakal, and their investments in their totems (3919).

They look after their mother’s business as well as their own (like
a djuŋgaya), and see the path ahead and any strange things which
might come crawling in (4002).

They come to an age when they start to look at themselves, who they
are, where they stand and they start making decisions for themselves
(4404). They know they have a role when they’re about 13 or 14 (-613).
They begin putting it into practice ‘in real terms’ while the elders
still hold it (-145). They may be capable of leadership but they
are careful not to exercise it. They wait, and watch, and later they
put it into practice. Girls too. (-1414)

What does the family do?

The family wants to hand over leadership to the new generation after
they have been watching the child (-613). They help the young child
on the pathway (-125), bring him to his gakal (1843), and admonish
him mildly but clearly (raypirri’ 2010, 2042, 3529) for their gift
is their gakal (4122).

If we are able to ensure the good development of the child, we
are confident that we can send them to a good place of balanda education.
(1920) Gotha actually uses CDU as an example. Carried by their gakal,
they enter the white man’s education fearlessly (marrparaŋ 3659)
because they have already learnt the Yolŋu side.

The School

Our kids are already pretty smart on both sides but the education
department is confused and doesn’t really know what to do (4730).
Some teachers don’t even realise that Yolŋu kids have gakal, they
assume that they’re not already very smart (djambatj 3901). We have
our own doctors and lawyers and you need to learn from us (5024).
The kids comes from the Yolŋu world and just have to survive in the
Balanda world of school (4838). It’s an obstacle and the balanda
think the Yolŋu kid stupid, but maybe he’s actually quite smart,
and the problem is that the two pedagogies are just missing each
other (4905).

The balanda see quite different signs of giftedness (1738). the
balanda way says: ‘Ask many questions, and ask in order to learn.
Children should ask old people.” But if they were doing it the Yolŋu
way, it’s not good for him to ask questions (5156). Our gifted children
are not competitive, (835) they help and encourage each other ‘even
though the teacher doesn’t know. Those children are talented and
gifted’ (952). ‘Showing a bit of leadership in the classroom, and
helping others understand what the teacher has given the kids to
do, showing responsibility of helping others who are slow. That’s
the kind of leader that will be in the future for the Yolŋu’ (820).

We see our kids in school and we support them learning both sides,
that’s how a leader emerges (1949). So we can’t expect the teachers
to support our gifted children alone, we need to help them, work
for them, and teach them (2027). If we help both the old people and
the people at the school, we can work together to identify those
who have gifts and gakal (4205). We have our own ways of learning,
and so do the children, that’s why we must all help each other (4235).
Education starts with knowing who you are and where you belong (3716),
so the schools and education department need to find how to join
up with Yolŋu pathways (3740). So you in the department see kids
who are clever at maths, and English, but we see children’s quiet
ŋayaŋu, gently spoken, who know their kinfolk, patient, good listener,
they are the leaders in our way of thinking, leaders whom we choose,
or born leaders (3756). We need to join up with the school education
people, and help to raise those children up, so they will later lead
they own people, later, when we here are all passed away (3834).

Dhäŋgal and Lawurrpa talking about Yolngu perspectives of Gifted and Talented
children

Dhäŋgal Interview

Lawurrpa Interview

Key Concepts relating to Gifted and talented children

bäla

habitual way of behaving, favourite place

balyunmirr

a reflexive verb meaning to invest oneself in a 'totemic' connection,
that is a particular phenomenon which has been left
by the ancestors for your particular clan group. The
examples which Gotha gives are 'sacred
rock', shellfish, water, octopus'. Places in which
people balyunmirr are called riŋgitj.

birrimbirr

one's spirit (as opposed to ŋayaŋu which relates more to the
body)

djambatj

an adjective describing a good hunter, often used to denote cleverness,
especially in terms of mulkurr-djambatj – clever head, mel-djambatj – eyes
like a hawk.

djuŋgaya

one who looks after and supervises aspects of his mothers' clans' business.

gadaman

clever, quick witted.

gakal

the behaviour of a person in a style which reproduces ancestral connections,
also translated as role, style, manner. The point of gakal is that one
doesn't make up one's own style of behaviour, but one takes
it on through the process of balyunmirr, and by brining ŋayaŋu and mulkurr
together.

marrparaŋ

brave, fearless

mulkurr

head and by extension, mind.

munhdhurr

gift

murruy'murruyyun

exert great effort

ŋayaŋu

the seat of the emotions – guts, feelings. If a Yolŋu is ŋayaŋumirr
(literally 'having ŋayaŋu') we might say ‘their heart
is in the right place'. They are thoughtful, sympathetic, acting
with good faith.

raypirri

admonishment to young people, firmly and quietly to make clear the
nature and reasons for acceptable behaviour.

riŋgitj

significant ancestral places in which identities are invested

rum'rum

generally refers to avoidance behaviour for particular kin, like a
man's mother-in-law, but well behaved children are expected
to be rum'rum – that is to keep a low profile, not to be
noisy, not to insinuate yourself into a position.